Best Response for Repelling an Overwhelming Attack

[Thales]

When hit with with a massive attack would it be better to attempt to send your newly generated units to garrison fortresses and towers?

A reason for this is that it seems that the newly generated units go into battle disorganized so they get decimated.

Also the fortresses and towers that are being attacked by the enemy tend to get destroyed.

I suspect that units inside a tower or a fortress have a defensive bonus. Units inside a tower or a fortress would also add to the defense capability of that building.

A downside to sending units directly to a building is that the enemy can get inside your defense perimeter.

 

 

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

there is no way in the current gameplay. and less if it comes with 4 rams.

[Player of 0AD]

The resign button

[sarcoma]

Game is hugely unbalanced in terms of military techs. A 100 man fully upgraded army is like 10 times stronger than 200 men with few upgrades, and building arrows won't much to them either.

[Thales]

38 minutes ago, Player of 0AD said:

The resign button

LOL

[LetswaveaBook]

2 hours ago, Thales said:

would it be better to attempt to send your newly generated units to garrison fortresses and towers?

Huh? You build towers and a fortress?

My view is that if you don't want to deal with overwhelming attacks, don't spend resources on towers or fortesses. When I build a fortress, most often I only do so because I need it for a hero.

When I am outnumbered, I tend to order my farmers near the CC to build a temple and retreat my troops to that position.

[thephilosopher]

If you're fighting an overwhelming force that's led by a hero - and you don't have enough units to either fight back or launch a simultaneous attack on the enemy - then, yeah, the "resign" button is probably your best bet. They'll have enough firepower to capture your barracks and towers, and they should be able to take down your fortress with rams or catapults.

Keep in mind that quite a few new players try the "load up every male unit I have and take all of them to invade the enemy at the same time" trick. And you can fight against that trick if you're at Phase 3. Those players sometimes leave their home base wide open, and you can march in with an army and a couple of rams and capture their CC.

Edited December 9, 2021 by thephilosopher

[a 0ad player]

Battles are exponential, so single units don't really cause any damage, or outnumbered battles (less combat power) cause negligible damage.

Against an overwhelming attack, it is best to gain time and minimize your own damage. Fortresses, CC and towers cause simplified area damage while the units quartered there take no damage. Skirmishers, Slingers, Archers (units with little health and little armor) die first in area damage, which usually greatly reduces the fighting strength of the enemy army.

Destroying isolated siege weapons protects the buildings and slows down the push. All isolated units (groups) can be targeted. Units capturing buildings can also be targeted (especially by moving units in and out of buildings). Splitting the attention of the opposing player can help. Counterattacks especially with cavalry / siege weapons in the enemy base can be very effective or split the attention very much. Which in turn makes individual units targetable.

Under certain circumstances it makes sense to face the enemy army slightly outnumbered in order to reduce their numbers and thus protect your building. It is important to scout and set up outposts in important areas so that there is enough time to react.

[Thales]

1 hour ago, sarcoma said:

Game is hugely unbalanced in terms of military techs. A 100 man fully upgraded army is like 10 times stronger than 200 men with few upgrades, and building arrows won't much to them either.

Good point. My units were all up-to-date. But that does not obviate that the enemy may have had superior troops compared to my troops. Also it seemed that the enemy had an apparent endless line of reinforcements. Where I seemingly could not build replacements as fast!!

42 minutes ago, LetswaveaBook said:

Huh? You build towers and a fortress?

Yes. I was actually, in the last game, faced with a two front war where the enemy alternated between attacking on each front. I did make a mistake in that the enemy was able to flank one front to get inside my lines. While I was finally able to finally "kill" that attack, it left me open to getting overrun on the other front, which is what happened. Pretty intelligent AI!!!

 

29 minutes ago, thephilosopher said:

If you're fighting an overwhelming force that's led by a hero - and you don't have enough units to either fight back or launch a simultaneous attack on the enemy - then, yeah, the "resign" button is probably your best bet. They'll have enough firepower to capture your barracks and towers, and they should be able to take down your fortress with rams or catapults.

Keep in mind that quite a few new players try the "load up every male unit I have and take them to invade the enemy at the same time" trick. And you can fight against that trick if you're at Phase 3. Those players sometimes leave their home base wide open, and you can march in with an army and a couple of rams and capture their CC.

I was wondering about the points your raised. The AI may have decided to pursue the strategy of dedicating every possible unit to attack. But it didn't seem that they were getting exhausted.

Edited December 9, 2021 by Thales

[thephilosopher]

I'm a lot less sure about how these things go in games against the AI. But in my experience, the AI rarely commits the kinds of overwhelming numbers most people in this thread have in mind. I was thinking of a hero plus 50-75+ units. I don't think I've ever seen the AI attack with that many.

If you're talking about the AI attacks that happen around the 10-15 minute mark in single player games, you can typically brush those aside with 20-25 infantry units. The best advice against the AI is usually to develop faster and generate enough infantry to beat the AI back.

Edited December 9, 2021 by thephilosopher